21st June 2007, 5:20 PM
Quote:Number of major Final Fantasy games with female main characters (the one you control): 2 (plus one upcoming)
Number of major Final Fantasy games with male main characters: all the rest -- 13? (10 main games, 2 FFT games, FFA if it counts, whatever I forgot)
I think you're confusing "giving the base something that they can related to" for "sexism". Let's face it, gaming is dominated by males and, as such, a lot of gaming protagonists are also male. That's not a fluke.
What I mean by bringing that up is that you're trying to meld two seperate issues into some overarching problem and I don't think you can do that. Sexism is a negative portrayal of woman or limiting them to bit parts, not necessarily having them in major supporting roles.
If I make one game without a main female characters, that's not sexism, but if I make a hundred it is?
Quote:The horror genre (in films and whatnot) frequently has female protagonists...
Well, so much for "virtually all".
Quote:Still... you win and you are presented with an image of a scantily-clad woman?
If by "scantily-clad" you mean "having as much clothes or more than most women you'll see on a summer day in the city" then yeah, I guess so.
It's a shot of Samus not wearing her bulky suit, not the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
Quote:It might be a slight exaggeration, but it's not THAT far off...
No, it actually is quite far off. But mostly becausing your confusing several issues here.
Quote:would Western RPGs also almost always have male main characters?
Without hestitation, a great deal of them would.
Quote:why is the main female character in a JRPG usually the healer and gets kidnapped at some point, for instance (and the kidnapping of course requires the male character to rescue her' they virtually never actually get out of the situation on their own)?
How many Japanese RPGs have you played recently, Brian? I can think of a lot that don't do or at least have very strong female characters in major supporting roles and that's just glancing through my PSX game collection.
Sometimes you get the scorpion.